Marking Roma Holocaust Memorial Day, Toth said no community can be held responsible on the basis of its origin or identity.

She recalled that on the night of August 2-3, 1944, the Nazi regime liquidated the Roma family camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, with nearly 3,000 Roma men, women and children murdered in a single night.

She added that during the Holocaust, hundreds of thousands of Roma across Europe fell victim to persecution and genocide.

"It is our shared responsibility to build a society founded on the values of human dignity, mutual respect and solidarity," she said.

"We must create a family and community environment for children where acceptance, dialogue and mutual responsibility are the norm," she added.

Roma self-government pays tribute to Holocaust victims

A ceremony was held at the National Roma Self-Government's (MROO) Dohany Street headquarters in Budapest on Monday to commemorate the victims of the Roma Holocaust.

Mihaly Farkas, head of the National Roma Cultural and Media Centre, said at the event that remembrance was "not a gravestone of the past but a lantern that illuminates the present and lights the way forward".

He said rememberance was "only meaningful if it enriches and elevates our lives", but it alone was "insufficient if we fail to recognise how exclusion, hatred and systemic oppression persist in different forms today".

Farkas added that the memory of the Roma Holocaust was not just about the past but also a warning that human dignity can be destroyed not only by taking lives but also by stripping people of faith, self-respect, opportunities and a future.

He also addressed how narrowing pathways to social mobility can trap entire generations in deep poverty and vulnerability.

As part of the event, Mihaly Dancs, head of the MROO, and Farkas each laid a wreath at the memorial plaque for Roma Holocaust victims in the building.

Roma Holocaust Memorial Day has been observed on August 2 since 1972, following a resolution by the World Roma Congress in Paris.

The date commemorates the night of August 2-3, 1944, when SS guards killed more than 3,000 Roma in the Auschwitz death camp.

Tarr: 'Our task is to build a society that will never forget the tragedy of the Holocaust'

The minister for social relations and culture told a commemoration of the victims of the Roma Holocaust in Budapest on Sunday that "we must remind ourselves of our task: to build a present, a future and a society for future generations that will never forget the tragedy of the Holocaust and the path that led to it."

Zoltan Tarr told the event held at the Holocaust Memorial Centre that the suffering and senseless deaths of the millions murdered and the "countless young people, elderly, infants, Jews and Roma people is a wound on the body of the world that will never heal".

Andor Grosz, a member of the board of trustees of the Holocaust Documentation Centre and Memorial Collection Public Foundation and president of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Hungary (Mazsihisz), said "the victims of the Porajmos remind us that indifference kills, whilst compassion gives life."

 Photo courtesy: óbuda.hu

Source: MTI – Hungary’s national news agency since 1881.

*********************************************************************************************

You're very welcome to comment, discuss and enjoy more stories via our Facebook page: 

Facebook.com/XpatLoopNews + via XpatLoop’s groups: Budapest Expats / Expats Hungary

You can subscribe to our newsletter here: XpatLoop.com/Newsletters